The Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) energy outlooks always provide some interesting details about the US’s energy use and production. In it’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, for instance, it anticipated that solar power will continue to outpace wind power in terms of growth. That’s even though it now anticipated a slow down in its growth in 2019.

The sun can’t make beer on its own, but in Hawaii Kona Brewing will soon use solar power to brew about 25 percent of its beer, nearly 7,000 cans of beer an hour at its forthcoming brewery. That’s thanks to a new, 336 kilowatt solar panel array and 122 kilowatt hour energy storage system that’s being installed by EnSync’s subsidiary in Hawaii, Holu Energy. 

Vivint Solar is looking for more markets. The company announced two moves last week that will help it expand into new markets, Illinois and with a homebuilder in California. The rooftop solar company was already in the Golden State, but the announcement that it will work with a homebuilder ahead of that state’s solar mandate, places it for further growth in the nation’s largest solar market.

Last week a new report found that solar power costs will continue to drop and could fall as low as $15 per megawatt hour. Meanwhile smaller banks and credit unions are also finding success with financing rooftop solar power with solar loans. In Massachusetts a new omnibus energy bill passed that has support from the solar industry but doesn’t fix all the issues with solar in the state. 

The cost of large-scale solar farms have continued to plummet, making it easier for utilities to choose to build or buy power from giant solar projects. Now, at least one report theorizes that the cost of such projects may hit a floor as low as $14.7 per megawatt hour (MWh) as soon as 2022. 

Large national banks and funding sources helped fund the boom in rooftop solar power as it gained a foothold in the US through power-purchase agreements and solar lease arrangements. Now, as solar costs have come down and some of the large solar companies have moved to become more profitable, solar loans funded through local banks and credit unions are stepping up to help finance rooftop solar and it’s proving positive for them. 

Massachusetts’ legislature passed a compromise omnibus energy bill yesterday (July 31) that pushes its renewables to 40 percent of the state’s electric generation by 2030. It’s less than some clean energy advocates hoped for, but the bill has the support of solar advocates even though it falls short on raising Massachusetts’ solar net-metering cap.

Georgia Power opened up its Renewable Energy Development Initiative (REDI) for applications. The program seeks to add a total of 177 megawatts of new solar power through commercial and industrial installations. Currently it’s seeking to 100 or more megawatts of solar projects through a competitive bidding process as part of the larger program.

Last week Sunrun announced that it reached pay parity across all its operations becoming the first national solar company to reach that measure of gender equality. Meanwhile community solar is set to grow exponentially through 2030, and renewable energy continues to make gains in places like Virginia where Dominion Energy announced plans to add in 3,000 megawatts of renewables. 

Earlier this week Dominion Energy announced that it plans to add 3,000 megawatts (MWs) of new wind and solar power projects in Virginia. The utility also announced that it’s already filed to install 240 MWs of new solar projects and the first offshore wind power project in Virginia, a 12 MW wind farm.